Underworld - Classic or Dud?

ESSENTIAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsHo1Q3BPYY

it's like a glossy dubnobass... track

ginormous smiley face

ha, well done youtube for taking the still image from those 2 seconds of video

this is pretty nice but something about High Contrast's brand of glossiness (thanks Dan, that is exactly the word) which is slightly offputting to me - looking forward to a full album though

i'm not sure this track is by high contrast

You're right - Scribble was, this isn't. (Barking wiki)

Oh, right! It sounded... trebly enough. Whatever that means. I stand corrected.

Leaked

whispers
bad boy
elevator
agitator
new york girl
corkscrew hair
BANG

Anyone got an opinion on the new album yet? IMO it's their best in a long while, probably better than even Beacoup Fish to me. Very positive and uplifting stuff, it does lack some of the subtlety of their earlier work, but there's a lot of knockout tracks here. I count 4 legitimate singles, maybe even 5. I wish they could have put on one epic-length jam on there, maybe something like "Bamboo", but whatever. It's definitely very good.

Opinions have been expressed, they largely match your own:
Underworld - Barking (Sept 13 2010)

Lots of discussion here:

Underworld - Barking (Sept 13 2010)

And to answer succinctly, it's one of the best albums I've heard all year.

wow, search function did not turn up that thread...thanks

hey guys if u didnt know ilxor really likes this album

hey guys here is a 7-year-old post where deej the critical genius of all things hip-hop admits to liking the smashing pumpkins!! looooooooool

Ned, let's talk about your 136 Albums of the 90s.

\Oo/ i still like selected works

great 'zing'

stfu

no

Not sure how deej's Underworld zing is any better/worse than my SP zing...?

Frankenstein stage play soundtrack imminent

I adore Underneath The Radar!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JqMUYLV9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Am I the only one?

Oh, and when Googling I came across the video for the title track, which I had never seen before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vQP_RFccY

It's eightiesriffic!

a lot more continuity with their later sound than i expected!

I really like the two albums they did as Freur. Kind of like OMD or Depeche Mode but more fun. As for the first era of Underworld I'm not really sold on the albums (Underneath the Radar is okay), but they do have good songs - "Stand Up", "I Need a Doctor", "Underneath the Radar", "Mercy", "Change the Weather", and "Glory! Glory!" are all good fun

everything everything.......prob one of my favourite albums ever, rediscovering via spotify. they put a shame on the other 90s dance act by dint of how real and raw and true to...ecstasy, their sound is. everything everything is a perfect album.

My copy of Frankenstein showed up last week. Really great listen but even better in context of the play. If you don't have Breaking and Entering yet, get it ASAP. If you like the ambient side of underworld, B&E is going to please you. I play it more than any other UW album now.

i never bothered with anything after two hundred days or whatever it was called. am i wrong not to bother?

Barking is great. Oblivion With Bells isn't but has some good tunes.

you know what's good? the pig & dan mix 2 of 'play pig'. i think it's mix 2 anyway, the one on the 12".

The Pete Heller mix of Peggy Sussed rules too. I really like Oblivion With Bells and Barking. The River Run Projects have some great songs mixed with some mediocre experimental things. The RRP 12"s all have great mixes on them but they're hard to find. They've done three soundtracks that are all good if you like ambient UW. You really need to get their webcast from 06 called underworld vs. Misterons. It's 1.5hrs of UW jamming versions of some classic tracks and new stuff. Killer versions, required listening.

okay "Dirty Epic" is just the greatest thing they ever did

it hits every single one of their strengths and sustains the awesome for 10 straight minutes

totally agree. Dirty + Dirty Guitar just make the whole experience that much more enjoyable. they opened one of the shows I saw in 07 with Dirty Epic. truly incredible.

So actually sitting down and listening to their Isles of Wonder soundtrack for the first time. That Evelyn Glennie collaboration really is something.

I was actually kind of surprised by the High Contrast tunes. Not at all what I expected out of him and quite good besides. The new UW stuff is great, not that you'd ever know it's them. Good remixes too. But the fact that there's three Arctic Monkeys tunes on it kind of puts me off. Just delete all the non-UW non-High Contrast stuff and you've got a neat album though.

alright, this thread inspired me to pull out the old Underworld discs. i'm surprised by how well dubnobass has held up. not a single element out of place. I think the rub against techno (at this time, especially), was how it's mostly just discordant elements that come together but don't really form anything above the sounds. This album (and actually, every Underworld album) is a great counterpoint to that. Some bad lyrics (thinking of the "number cruncher" line) but many many more good ones. And what DJP posted about Dirty Epic is totally OTM. everything about that one works.

High Contrast wrote a great 3 part blog post on his Olympic experience on his blog. Recommended reading.

I relistened to 2nd Toughest and, surprisingly, didn't hate it. I still feel like the recorded versions of most of the songs aside from "Rowla" and "Pearl's Girl" don't have the same impact that they do in a live setting (ESPECIALLY "Confusion The Waitress", which really kills the momentum of the album) but I have a much smaller chip on my shoulder about the actual album than I used to

I still rank it behind all of their other albums though, except maybe Oblivion With Bells

I never really had a problem with "Confusion". You kind of need to listen to it on good headphones to catch all the little things that go on on that album. It just captures SO MUCH of what was great about the whole 90's electro scene (dubnobass did too, but kind of had its own sound)

I humped the OWB thread, that albums a lot better than I thought it was upon release. Definitely one of those "cast aside all expectation and come in with an open mind" type albums. When it first came out I was just upset it didn't have "Silver Boots" or "You Do Scribble" on it.

Going to have to give OWB another chance someday.

It's really the only outlier from their overall consistency for me.

I totally can vibe with OWB up unti "Ring Road" pops up, at which point all of the good will I've built up over the preceding songs evaporates and I have to tap out

It really strikes me as if they said to themselves "what if we took the one or two redeeming qualities in 'Bruce Lee' away and stuck the result in the middle of the new album?"

As for Second Toughest, it's what got me hooked on Underworld and will always be my sentimental favorite. Though "Stagger" will probably always zero plays on my iTunes.

Underworld were given the Innovation in Sound Award last night for their work on the Olympics.

http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/258303/slide_258303_1667730_free.jpg

I think I said upthread, I first heard the 2nd Toughest material by walking into a live gig blind that I heard about from a dude hanging out in my apartment with one of my roommates; I had the "Born Slippy" single and knew about their Change The Weather/Underneath The Radar era and wanted to see what their show was about. The whole thing floored me. I ran out and bought the album the next day and the entire thing just felt... weak, and non-present.

I love Oblivion With Bells! Best Mamgu Ever is one of Rick Smiths finest 'Reich-ian' repetitive piano pieces and a track I can listen to over and over again. Faxed Invitation is also a sleeper worth spending time with. Glam Bucket was absolutely HUGE when played live but it's a case of 'guess you had to be there' because it can come across flat on the album. Overall it's a really solid record and my only complaint is Holding The Moth. That track was much stronger live before the album was released but they over worked it and it came out sounding stilted and awkward.

xpost so we're basically saying the same thing. First taste was the sweetest taste.

Personally I don't have a problem with "Ring Road". I was okay with "Bruce Lee" and "Trim" too. Obviously not the best UW has to offer but as a one-off thing I don't have a problem with it. The chorus is good, at least. Agreed about "Glam Bucket" too. It's like "Twist" from AHDO, it's decent enough on the album but it feels like they really figured out what to do with the track live. Then again UW is really much different live and in studio. In the studio everything is perfected in its own way (I really like the studio version of "Holding the Moth"!), but yes it does lose some of its spontaniety.

"Best Mamgu Ever" is the one track that's been hitting me very hard lately and honestly I think it's one of their ten best. I'm a huge fan of the "Big Sister" EP they did and this is really just an extension of that. The way the vocals are mixed in is really astounding, but like all great UW tracks it just builds up under your nose, before you know it there's a long guitar solo and like three vocal parts. Those three final tracks on OWB are all fantastic ("Good Morning Cockerel" is really a beautiful thing. No way do Orbital or the Chems or Fluke do something like this).

i like the iciness of STITI, it's definitely colder in sound but it feels like a 2 AM train ride through an endless metropolis to me which probably hits me more than their warmer or plurier stuff.

I agree. I think the thing that I like so much about "Juanita" in album form is its majestic restraint, i.e. those alternating chords in half-heard choral background instead of juicy synthesizer hits.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Brfp118S0

Karl Hyde solo album in the offing:

http://www.factmag.com/2013/01/24/underworlds-karl-hyde-announces-solo-album-edgeworld-stream-the-first-track-inside/